Exploring the Labyrinth_ A Guide for Healing and Spiritual Growth - Melissa Gayle West [9]
Then (after furtively looking around—I still wasn’t quite comfortable) I stretched my arms wider, opening my chest to the fierce freedom of a great raptor about to take flight. Releasing my embarrassment, I soared through the circuits, exulting in the growing strength of my wings.
I needed to “fly” the labyrinth frequently for several months as I discovered a new freedom and power in my life. When I felt comfortable enough, I allowed myself to spread my arms when walking with others and learned a valuable lesson: that I was my own worst judge and jury. No one looked at me askance or clucked their tongues when I opened my arms. I discovered that just as I was the only one judging myself for being foolish, I was also the only one who could give myself permission to fly.
Finding, as I did, that we are free to stretch and try new ways of being in the labyrinth without being judged by others can be one of the labyrinth’s greatest gifts. Neal Harris, a counselor who built the massive Earth Wisdom Labyrinth in Elgin, Illinois, calls the labyrinth the “playground of the spirit.” “There’s so much dogma about correct ways to use the labyrinth,” says Harris. “I like to tell people that anything goes.” Harris likes to tell about his first experience in the labyrinth to illustrate. “After the walk, when I was sitting by the side of the labyrinth waiting for others to finish the walk, I got this funny idea: ‘What if I stood on my head?’ My first thought was ‘Oh, you’re just going to embarrass the heck out of yourself. Why would you even consider it?’ But I stood on my head, and it led to a profound perception, watching other walkers on the ceiling with this labyrinth. It reminded me of floating butterflies.
“That’s when I realized that to receive the body wisdom that can flow up during this mind-body-spirit experience of walking the labyrinth, it’s incredibly important to honor what you’re led to do. You never know what’s going to bubble up, and you never know what’s going to further your own evolution. You can’t decide beforehand what’s going to be best for your own healing process when you walk the labyrinth.”
Most people didn’t even notice that Harris stood on his head. “That’s the kicker, that remnant of adolescence when you’re sure everyone’s watching you, but they’re really involved in their own stuff. I love to pass that story on to people and tell them that ‘step on a crack, break your mother’s back’ does not apply to walking the labyrinth.”
LABYRINTH AS JOURNEY
The labyrinth has always represented journey: the journey through life, death and rebirth, the spiritual journey, the initiatory journey. The labyrinth still speaks to us today as a powerful symbol of journeying.
That journey can be your whole life. It can also represent a particular journey in your present or past life: school, a relationship, a creative project. It can be fun, and instructive, to walk consciously with a specific journey in mind to reflect upon, but often the labyrinth itself will reveal the particular journey and teach you how to be a journeyer.
I had a client who discovered to her dismay that her mind repeated “What’s the use? It’s hopeless …” when she walked my backyard labyrinth for the first time. Elaine realized that her resigned attitude was the way she approached her whole life. “When I was walking, it was like I was moving metaphorically through sludge, lots of deep, endless amounts of it. That sludge seemed to go on forever. I realized I approached so much of my life that way—my teaching job, housework, stuff with my husband, you name it. Thick, dark yuck, all of it, and me wondering why I even bothered.
“Well, the surprise for me in the labyrinth was that when I picked my head up from